Part 19 (1/2)
Finally they asked Clay all sorts of questions about their progress down the river, when they left Rock Island, when they touched at St.
Louis, and when they reached Cairo. The boy, though wondering, answered the rather personal questions frankly.
It was almost dark when the visitors left the boat. Their last visit had been made to the cabin, to inspect the electric stove, and they pa.s.sed the boys on the prow as they went ash.o.r.e. For a time after their departure the boys discussed the unusual conduct of the visitors, and then Chet and Clay went in to prepare supper.
Taking advantage of a momentary absence of Chet from the cabin, Clay looked in the hiding-place where he had left the leather bag in which the diamonds had been brought on sh.o.r.e. The bag was gone! Clay hastened out on deck to meet two astonished boys.
”Say,” Case said, ”what's come over Chet? He came out of the cabin like a shot and jumped off on the pier. Then, without even stopping to look back, he ran down into the city! What have you been doing to him?”
Clay stood for a moment like one incapable of speech, then he dropped into a deck-chair and laughed until the tears ran down his cheeks.
Captain Joe and Teddy joined the others in their criticism of his strange actions.
”You didn't get too many high b.a.l.l.s while in the city, did you?” asked Case.
”You might have kept sober enough to bring Alex. back with you!” Jule put in.
”Ah believe yo' done scare dat lad off de boat!” little Mose suggested.
”Well,” Clay explained, presently, ”I suppose I ought to treat the matter more seriously, for we may have lost Chet for good, but it is funny for all that.”
”Why don't you pa.s.s it around?” demanded Case. ”Let us in on the laugh!”
”You all know what I did with the articles we found on Chet,” Clay responded. ”Well, when I took the valuables out of the leather bag, I put burrs from the repair kit and pieces of broken dishes into the bag and hid it where I thought Chet might find it if he looked long enough.”
”I don't see anything funny in that,” observed Case, with a frown.
”Just wait! When I looked for the bag, just now, it was gone, and the next thing I hear is that Chet has taken to his heels. You see what has happened!”
”The poor little chap!” exclaimed Case. ”I'm sorry for him.”
”So am I,” Clay agreed, ”but he ought to have been honest with us.”
”We knew what to expect,” Jule suggested. ”He said he'd get the gems back if he could, didn't he? Now he thinks he's got them, and is lugging off a lot of truck not worth a cent! I call that a shame!”
Clay looked thoughtful for a second and then burst out:
”But is he? Look here, fellows,” he went on, excitedly, ”suppose he never took the bag at all! Suppose Chet found it and changed his mind about running off with it! Suppose one of the visitors took it!
Suppose that is what they were here for; suppose Chet missed it as soon as they went away and chased on after them!”
”You said the visitors were bankers!” exploded Jule. ”What about that?”
”One of them was, but I don't know anything about the others. Strange they should all be so eager to inspect the _Rambler_! Strange they should get off by themselves and talk in whispers! I reckon we're knee-deep in mystery!”
”Well, where did you leave Alex.?” asked Jule. ”He hasn't come back yet!”
”And here's another funny thing,” Clay went on, without answering the question, directly. ”We saw Red, the Robber, up town, dressed like a gentleman! Alex. followed him out of the place where we saw him, and may have got into trouble!”
”Then the stealing of the bag is Red's work!” decided Case. ”No need to guess about that any more! How he got his men in with the banker I don't know, but he did it, and one of them took it, and poor Chet saw that it was gone, and now he is following a bag filled with crockery about the city!”
”Pshaw!” Jule exclaimed. ”It is dollars to doughnuts that Chet got the bag himself! He said he'd swipe it if he got a chance. You all know that!”